Egypt Criticized for 'Inhumane' Killing of Pigs

Egypt Criticized for 'Inhumane' Killing of Pigs

By Maamoun Youssef, Associated Pressr – Monday, May 18, 5:14 pm ET

CAIRO – A leading animal rights group criticized Egypt on Monday for
using "shocking and cruel" methods to slaughter the country's pigs over
swine flu fears, responding to a YouTube video that showed men skewering
squealing piglets with large kitchen knives and hitting others with
crowbars.

The controversy was the latest swirling around Egypt's decision to kill
all the country's 300,000 pigs out of concerns they will spread swine flu.
But the World Health Organization has said it is entirely unnecessary
because the illness is being spread through humans.

The government decision also brought accusations that Muslims are
attacking minority Christians, who breed the animals. Most Muslims consider
pigs unclean and do not eat pork.

[Ed. Note:] If Christians were truly compassionate as the Bible
teaches them to be, they wouldn't be raising pigs or any other animals, and
this would never have happened.

The Egyptian government has denied the claims and subsequently expanded
its rationale for the slaughter to confront a long-standing hygienic problem
posed by pigs raised by garbage collectors who live amid the refuse in Cairo
slums.

The latest troubles started after the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm
newspaper posted the video showing men standing in the backs of trucks,
killing pigs with knives and crowbars and tossing them in front of a
bulldozer. The piles of bleeding bodies, some of them still moving, were
then transferred to larger trucks, which took them to the desert to be
buried in Qalyoubiya province, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Cairo.

Mohammed Fathi el-Mugharbel, a government official supervising the
operation, was shown in the video saying some of the pigs were sprayed with
chemicals to paralyze and kill them before being buried.

Peter Davies, who heads the London-based World Society for the Protection
of Animals, called the methods "inhumane."

"I am writing to express my deepest objection and request corrective
action regarding the inhumane cull of pigs being carried out in Egypt,"
Davies said in a letter to Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif circulated to
media.

There were also protests within Egypt's parliament. Christian lawmaker
Seyada Ilhami Gress expressed anger Sunday over the "government's random and
inhumane way of slaughtering the pigs." Responding to the criticism,
Parliament Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said the killing should be done in a
"civilized and humane way because animals have rights like human beings."
But he did not specifically comment on the video.

Both Muslim and Christian lawmakers supported the government late last
month when it issued its order to kill the country's pigs, even though no
swine flu cases have been reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued instructions at the time that owners
should kill their pigs by piercing their hearts with a needle and then
slitting their throats before burying them in pits lined with quicklime.

But the video showed that those recommendations were not being heeded.

"I'm used to seeing a lot of shocking images. ... But what I saw today in
YouTube is among the most shocking and cruel," said Sofia Parente, an
international program manager for Davies' organization.

The head of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends, Ahmed el-Sherbini,
said in a statement published Monday in Al-Dustour newspaper that some of
the pigs were being buried alive. The government said it was not aware of
the practice.

"I have not seen or been informed of such treatment, but there might have
been some individual cases," Hamed Samaha, the director general of
veterinarian services at the Ministry of Agriculture, told The Associated
Press.

The government's decision to kill the pigs initially met some resistance,
with pig farmers hurling stones at Health Ministry trucks and clashing with
police.

The World Health Organization says the H1N1 virus that has sickened more
than 8,000 people around the world and killed 76 is being spread by humans,
not pigs, and pork products are safe to eat.

Many believe the Egyptian government made the decision to slaughter the
pigs to look strong in the face of the crisis. It was criticized for not
taking enough precautions when bird flu first appeared in Asia in 2003 and
ended up killing over two dozen people in the country.

Egyptian authorities quarantined a French family at a hospital after they
arrived Monday because two of the children showed signs of fever, said
Hassan Shabaan, an official at the airport's health department. The family
will remain at the hospital for 24 hours while they are tested for swine
flu, he said.

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